T-minus 31 hours

One day.

That's all that's left.  Just one day.

Where did all the time go?  What happened to all the vendors and planners we talked to who said "October of 2011?   Heck, you have plenty of time!"?  Where did the time go?

So, at 2pm today our coordinator Shelly is coming to pick up all the big stuff for the big day.  Really excited for that as right now there are so many piles and boxes it looks like we're moving out.  Almost every room that was cleaned, now looks half a wreck with half completed projects here and there.  And we have just less than 6 hours to complete most of them. 

But I had to take a moment and actually jump on here to chat about where we are in all of this. 

We will love each other forever but have mutually decided that writing vows sucks.  Too much pressure to say and do just the right thing. And trying to write vows while downloading music and working on seating charts and packing boxes is really not a good thing.

We love having friends and family around us, and we love how helpful they can be.  But sometimes as much as we'd love to talk about old times or answer more questions about how excited we are - we really just want to get stuff done.  And yes, it's awesome to be able to plan a few things where you step away from the madness and escape for a few.  But it's even better when a group of folks work together to get stuff done.  We had so much fun at our Wedding Craft-a-palooza and it will be on of our great pre-wedding memories.  (I wish I'd taken some pictures that I could actually share pre-wedding, but they are all day-of goodies so unless you were working on them - no sneak peaks!)  My personal lesson from this is that in the future I need to be better at volunteering to help others and not waiting to be asked. 

We have amazing friends and family. So many folks have stepped forward and done amazing things to help us.  We are so amazingly thankful.  And the pre-wedding gifts have been absolutely out of this world.  Writing about them is almost like having to write vows - so I'll put it off a bit longer...  

Planning a night of bowling the night before you are going to have many pictures taken of your hands was not good planning on our part. Lots of others aren't interested in breaking a nail before the big day either.  So with about 10 hours to go we are back to the drawing board on what to do tonight for reception dinner and event.  It sounded like a great idea - but apparently, not so much.

While Hobby Lobby is an evangelical Christian owned company who would not be supportive of our Holy Union - we have grown to love their store.  And their employees have been supportive even when we shared what it's all about.  There are so many stories in corporate America where employees don't live up to the high levels of their corporate service model - but in this case I think they have officially exceeded it. 

We have no concept of how long it will take to complete tasks.  Can't tell you how many times we started a "15 minute" task and were still working on it 2 days later.

As I was writing this, Kandi walked over and I asked her if she had any special thoughts or memories to add.  She asked what I said so far.  When I read it to her she said what a great job I did, and what a great job I've done on so much of this.  And as she looked at me, being so loving at supportive on something as small as a blog post, I was reminded that the thing I did the greatest job on was in finding and keeping her. 

Forever and ever, baby.  And ever. 

Single digits

I have no time to post anything. 

I can not do it with a fox, I can not do it in a box, I can not do it here or there, I can not do it anywhere!

I am behind on EVERYTHING!

But when we woke up this morning we said, "Nine days."  Oh my goodness.  Nine days. 

Nine days until I can spend a whole evening without being on this computer.  Nine days until I've promised Kandice she doesn't have to go shopping with me again for a whole year because in the last year she'd done almost as much as the last 10 years combined. 

And in nine days we will have one of the best days of our lives.  Even if all the details we're planing for don't happen quite the way we planned.  It will still be amazing. 

Nine days.

Wow.

31 days and counting!

Tonight we had our pre-wedding photo session with our photographer Nicky with Mint.  She is fun and we are so looking forward to working with her!  We're even more excited to see the pictures from tonight's shoot.   I wore fake eyelashes that I put on myself.  And I hadn't tried any practice runs.  It was a bit scary but I didn't get anything stuck together that wasn't supposed to be there, so it all turned out ok.  I was able to get some good advice from my buddy David.  20-something years ago he taught me how to apply liquid eyeliner, and now he steps me through fake eyelashes.  THAT is a good friend to have!  :)

It almost feels that we have more things to do now than we did - but it's just because all the decisions really have to be made!  I go for my dress alterations tomorrow which means I have to make the commitment to the shoes that I purchased a few months ago.  This means that during the ceremony I will likely tower over Kandi, the heels are high, but she said she's ok with that for a few hours. 

We need to make the programs.  And while we plan on DIYing those, and have bought some of the materials we haven't finalized a few of the things that would be going into the program so of course that has to happen first! 

We need to finalize the layout of the reception space, but to do that we need to know how many tables we will need and for that everyone needs to RSVP (cough, hint, cough).  And we have to finalize the layout so we can make sure we get the right rentals which we need to get pretty quickly.  And of course, we need the RSVP's to get to the caterer - but everyone knows that, right?  (hint, rsvp, hint)

And then there are the decisions like hair and make up, undergarments (oh my!), transportation, accessories, song lists, and all the other tiny little details that go into making the big day awesome.  When exactly are we suppose to have time to do laundry?  Or get the house ready for all the out of town guest?

We know it will all work itself out somewhere, but my goodness it keeps us busy! 

Awesome weekend

Two posts in one week?  Amazing, right? 

I don't have the time to say much but I just have to say what an amazing weekend it's been.  We met with our photographer, Nicky with Mint, and are working on finalizing our time for doing our pre-wedding session with her.  She hadn't clicked a shutter for us yet but we know it will be awesome.  We met with our florist Michelle of Crazy Daisies and we had basically scrapped 50% of things we've planned before and revamped our floral plan.  We love her creativity and are so excited to see how it looks on the big day.  Also, she's just pretty cool in general so it's always nice to hang out with her.  Today though - we tried to keep it brief as she really should have been at the emergency room and instead she came to our visit.  I won't get into the details, but how's that for dedication?  :) 

We finished up the invites and we are super excited to get them in the mail on Monday.  No turning back now!  :) 

We have started a few registries, have bought some things for the bar and for our special little favors.  We've shopped for shoes, for supplies, and for the heck of it.  It was awesome.

We have gotten many things done, and have may things started.  It's amazing to think about how much still needs to be done.  But I know we'll make it all come together. 

Amazing weekend.  48 days until the big day.  Have to remember to breathe deeply and enjoy the ride. 

Where did the time go?

I got back from traveling for work for a few weeks.  While I was tired, I was excited to get back to the routine of work, and follow up on all the things that had come up during my travel.  What did I come home to?  Well, I looked at our checklist on theknot.com and promptly freaked out.  Where did all the time go?  I thought everything was still several months away.  And now, we didn't. So - I made appointments.  My first full week back we had an appointment every single night.  We saw the list, and we began to check it off.  Cake tasting and design.  Check.  Final tasting with caterer. Check.  And check and check and check.  Ok, so they weren't all the same size check marks, but there has definitely been a large forward motion since I got back. 

This weekend we are meeting with our photographer at both venues to get her creative juices flowing, and we're going to set up a time to do a bit of a late engagement session.  At this point it's more of a pre-wedding session, but I think it's a great idea to be able to meet with her at least once before the big day to learn more about each other.  And as girls who in more than 10 years have never had professional pictures taken, we're all about making up for it now!

Some surprises from the journey.  Who knew it would be so hard to figure out how to do your hair?  So many considerations.  So many tiny differences making it a completely different style that you have to chose between.  So NOT my kind of an area.  My way of doing my hair every day is combing it, and then in an hour or so when it's dried - sticking in an barrette to keep it out of my face.  Almost worse than that is finding someone to professionally do my make up.  I mean, seriously?  My version of daily make up is tinted lip gloss. And yet - I get that it's important for the make up to be good, and to last all day. 

Another surprise - picking songs for the wedding ceremony.  We both love music, and we know how important a good song can be.  We want a great song.  I have no idea where to start.  Seriously.  There are SO many great songs.  How do you pick which one is going to forever be "the song you played at your wedding".  When my mom got married I was almost 5 years old.  I still remember hearing my aunt sing the song she sang, and I will always think of my mom's wedding and my aunt when I hear the song.  I need to pick just one song with that kind of meaning?  Too hard.  Kandi is on song detail.  Her favorite way to search for songs is on YouTube.  This has led to some awesome songs for the reception, but nothing yet for the wedding.  It's tough.

It's been an exciting journey, and we know it's not over.  51 days to go, lots of errands to run this weekend including helping my mom find a MOTB dress, the photographer, the florist, and of course the invitations will be going out by this weekend. 

Oh.....Did I just leak that information?  Gee, I guess I did.  :) 

The Save the Date story

Now that we are working on all the fun details for our Invitations, we can share the pictures and story for the making of our Save the Date's. 

Our first plan was that we would use these fun "business cards" we had made with all of our info for the ceremony.  It would be super simple - the card WAS the Save the Date.  And we had pre-bought some stamps to use to help personalize some of our DIY creations, so we'd put a stamp on the back of the white business envelope.  Super duper simple, right? 

Well, imagine sending a business card in a white business-y envelope.  Now imagine being the person to open that envelope and think about how lame it looks to open a practically empty white envelope and see just a business card.

Exactly.

So, I thought hey, let's put in one piece of paper that gives slightly more info, bigger font, and generally takes up more space in the envelope than just a business card.  And Kandi decided to not make them just business cards, but magnets - so she applied and hand cut a magnet to the back of every business card.  But then we thought - white piece of paper and white business card magnet in business looking envelope?  BORING!  So I figured if I could get some fun colorful paper we would be set. We contemplated taping the card to construction paper.  We contemplated doing some fancy multi-layered paper thing.  In the end we decided that it was going to be all about going to the store and getting inspired. 

So I did.  And there they were.  Envelopes that exactly matched our green color.  It was so exciting!  I'd thought I might find colorful paper but had never thought we'd get anywhere close to our color in an envelope!  Then I found acceptable paper - acceptable because while not an exact match, they are "cousin colors" coming from the same family. 

Heading home with that and many other ideas we played with what it would look like and what we would do.  My favorite discovery was the glue dots so those "cards" could actually stay in one place!  As someone who likes to know how something is going to end before it begins, I loved that we would know exactly where that card would be when it was opened up!  We thought it looked pretty good after an hour or so of playing around with it, but then Kandi came up with what I thought put it over the top - the stamp on the orange paper.  It was perfect! 




And so we began the assembly line!  I folded. She applied the card/magnets.  She stuffed.  I sealed and stamped. 


Don't we look happy?  Ok, there was some cheesing for the camera, but at the same time we WERE so excited!  While there have been checks written and decisions made, this really made it feel "official".

In addition to the original cards we'd planned to use, I'd tested out an idea with putting our picture on a card.  I didn't get a lot as I was just trying out the idea.  Kandi decided that we would include what we had on some of the invitations.  So if you didn't get one - sorry!  I only ordered a few!  We had no idea how we would use them when I got them or I would have gotten more!  So here it is our final product...

 

And once all the work was done, the pile was ready to head out to the post office.  

We hope you all enjoyed them as we enjoyed putting them together.  Speaking of which...

Time to go back to work on the invitations!  :)

Checking in from the road...

2 months, 11 days, 12 hours.

Why did I get that app again?

But that is certainly our reminder that time is a-ticking.  Kandi has been working to decide who will officially make her bridal outfit.  As someone who grew up with a family full of seamstresses, she was a bit surprised by the costs but she has gotten used to it.  We both know the basic concept of what the other is wearing, but don't know anything in particular.  We won't officially see them until the big day.  Only the seamstresses and our neighbor Stephanie will know for sure as she is the official "holder of my dress" since if it was at our house Kandi knows she couldn't quite control her curiosity.  Who knew that dress holder would end up being a flower girl duty? 

Our coordinator Shelly has been a great resource.  While she hasn't done any "work" she has been a great reference, resource and general sounding board for some of our ideas.  Knowing that she and her team are going to be there for the big day has been a nice relief.  She also came up with a few new ideas when she took her to see the reception space. She is so good about understanding what we want and understands exactly what we're going for - we're happy to have found her! 

I'm traveling now and Kandi has the house to herself to be able to do any and all wedding planning where she doesn't want my help.  Who knows what I'll be heading home to find?  :) 

Once my work related travel is done it's officially (bum bum buuuuummmmmm) time to order the invitations. Such a big step - and one we're so excited about!  It should be amazing. 

Time is ticking on by and I can't believe how soon it's going to be here! 

Starting to check off the list

It started as a concept.  And then that concept sprouted an idea.  The idea grew and grew until it had so many leaves that it no longer bore much resemblance to the initial concept, because it was so much better.  And yet - it seemed to be exactly what it was supposed to have been all along. 

Some seemingly deep thoughts about creating our save the dates!  And yet that's how it really happened.  We look back and almost wondered how we got there, and yet we can see how and when each of our ideas layered on one another to create the final end product.  It was a perfect coming together.  Just like us.

So, we took many pictures and I promise that I WILL share them - but I'll be waiting about 2 weeks to post the picture to make sure that anyone who actually reads the blog as of right now (I think it's up to 3 or 4 of you now... Howdy!) will have actually looked at their mail before they see it all on the blog. 

Today Kandi met with the first of the seamstresses we have met or been referred to for her outfit.  This woman seemed really excited about her ideas (again, not sharing yet - a girl has to maintain her mystery...) when we shared them with her at a bridal show.  We also have one seamstress that was referred to us by our wedding coordinator Shelly and by Aunt Cynthia who gave a glowing recommendation of someone she has used before.  That's Kandi's big task in the next week or two as she knows she needs to budget a bit of time to have something crafted completely from scratch. 

We recently purchased a few items for the reception venue that we're excited about.  Another mystery until October 15th of course.   These were some of the last of a group of items we've been gathering for some time and with this last purchase we are officially DONE there!  With so many items on the old to-do-list it's so nice to be able to officially check somethings off.   I have two big things that I really need to check off in the next few weeks.  They've both required so much research to make that final decision, and I think I'm getting really close.  I'll be meeting with an adviser shortly (Thank you Brian.) to go over some of the options and make some final decisions.  It's SO exciting!  And these are things I can immediately share here so yes, I'm being vague right now - but not for long!!!

And on that note - time to go put the RSVP's in a container for Kandi to drop off tomorrow!  One more thing to check off the list.  One more step towards making it feel oh-so-official. 

There's an ap for that

One night we were out and I was watching Kandi play spades with friends, which I really enjoy.  I was messing around with my phone, checking Facebook, looking at our wedding email address and then a thought popped in to my head.

"I wonder if they have any Wedding Aps?"

So I went to the little marketplace and typed in Wedding.  Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds.

I was impressed.  I figured I'd just look for fun.  See if something jumped out at me.

Wedding countdown calendar?  Sure, that could be fun.  Downloaded it and while it was downloading I went back to watching the game.

A few days later we were meeting with a potential wedding coordinator and she asked how long until the wedding (instead of just asking for the date) and suddenly that ap popped into my mind.  There is was.  Just one click of a button and I could tell her exactly.

Crap.

As of this very second I we have 3 Months, 28 Days, 9 hours, 22 minutes and 37 seconds.

I DON'T NEED TO KNOW HOW MANY SECONDS!!!
NO ONE WILL EVER NEED TO KNOW THE SECONDS!!!

I don't need to be riveted as I watch the seconds tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick by.  And then, it's gone.  For every second you watch slip by, another minute is right behind it.  And soon the days are falling past us and we wonder where the time went.

I haven't deleted the ap.

I know, call me a masochist.  Tell me I'm crazy. 

But you know what - I can't get rid of the hope that there is going to be a time when I see that time and instead of thinking "oh crap!" I get excited.  When all of the planning is done.  When there is nothing left for us to do but get our hair done, put on something pretty and pledge our love forever and ever in front of folks who will hold us to it.

That time may not come until we're down to less than 12 hours away.  Down to when our new wedding coordinator Shelly are firmly in control of the reins and we can just sit back and enjoy the moment.  And at that moment I will be more and more excited for every little tick, tick, tick.

PS. Want to be similarly riveted?   Scroll to the bottom of the page...